Prima Restaurant

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#163 of 1,101 Restaurants in Newcastle upon TyneItalian, Pizza, ££ - £££

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Prima Restaurant

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Website

+44 191 233 1011Improve this listing

About

Features

CUISINES

Italian, Pizza, Mediterranean, European

Meal types

Lunch, Dinner, Brunch

Special Diets

Vegetarian friendly, Vegan options, Gluten free options

FEATURES

Accepts Credit Cards

Free Wifi

Full Bar

Highchairs Available

Mastercard

Reservations

Seating

Serves Alcohol

Table Service

Takeout

Visa

Wheelchair Accessible

Location

40-46 Side, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3JA England

Order delivery

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Hours

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Closed now

• Opens at 12:00 PM

Sunday

12:00 - 22:00

Monday

12:00 - 22:00

Tuesday

12:00 - 22:00

Wednesday

12:00 - 22:00

Thursday

12:00 - 22:00

Friday

12:00 - 23:00

Saturday

12:00 - 23:00

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4.1

1,243 reviews

Excellent

632

Good

318

Average

121

Poor

Terrible

Scotland22

Arbroath172 contributions

Great Value

Sept 2024 • couples

This place was a great wee find whilst staying in the city for a couple of nights - we dined on both evenings it was so good. The ambiance is great with lovely music and a fantastic buzz about the place. Cocktails on 2:1 offer which is great when you stay in Scotland as we can’t have offers like this 🥲 . The trio of bruschetta and pate starter were both very tasty, carbonara & seafood pasta also very tasty and lots of seafood including king prawns. On the 2nd evening we opted for 3 starters at £19 which was great value - meatball bruschetta, chicken wings, pork belly, followed by lasagna. All again great value and very tasty, only criticism I would have is that the starters are a bit on the large portion size not leaving room to enjoy main meal but this is just my opinion. Staff are really friendly and offer a genuine service where they interact with the guests and on both evenings we were served by attentive and friendly staff. Would definitely return next time in Newcastle. Well Done to all 😀

Written 22 September 2024

This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Darren B

Burton upon Trent44 contributions

Great night out Lovely place , fantastic food. 👍

Apr 2024 • family

Me and my wife visited with my daughter and her boyfriend , the place is great , we had a table underneath the arches which is very impressive , I love Italian food and this was one of the very best I've eaten at. The service was also excellent not too slow or too fast and very nice people. I thought the food was well priced for the quality , the wine was just a little more expensive than I thought it should have been. Would definable go again , can highly recommend the seafood linguine.

Written 24 April 2024

PurelyBeltaBait

37 contributions

Good food but pricey

Jan 2024 • family

Overall we had a good experience at Prima. The service was very good, staff were friendly enough and did not require a deposit for a large booking. The food is really good here, but from previous visits the price has certainly gone up quite a lot and found it quite expensive for an Italian

Written 21 January 2024

Rachel A

1 contribution

Not as expected

Mar 2025 • family

I booked this restaurant for 22 people which was for a family members hen party. I don't usually write reviews however after almost everyone in the party complained about the same issues I feel like this was necessary. Firstly, we had booked for the a la carte menu. A couple of hours before arriving we received a phone call asking us if we would like to sit up stairs as there was a dj on, in which we said yes. When we got to the restaurant it was up 3 flights of stairs and into a large room which I can only describe as a dance studio with chairs. The tables were all set out apart so the party would of all be separated. No problem staff sorted this issue and we were all seated together. Secondly, I have never known a restaurant where you all have to get up separately to order drinks, wait for them to be made and then walk along to the end of the bar to pay for them, a bit like an IKEA cafe. When we had all sorted our drinks we then waited around 45minutes and no one had took out menu choice, it took a member of the party to ask when they would take our order. There was some confusion around this and the member of staff 'asumed' that we had already pre ordered. After around hour our food eventually came. Which included cold dishes which should have been hot, burnt pizza, and very dry meatballs which were tasteless. Not really worth eating. On paying our bill they had a service charge on for £45, which was quickly taken off as there service actually didn't live up to the expectations of what we would of expected. Overall none of us will be back and don't recommend. Maybe Somewhere with more welcoming staff and better quality food for the price is something we will consider for future reference.

Written 4 March 2025

Amy J

Newcastle upon Tyne4 contributions

Poor customer service/management, long wait for food which wasn’t hot and price increase ludicrous..

Dec 2024 • friends

I want to start by saying, we regularly eat at Prima and usually have positive experiences. Which is why we chose to eat there, as a table of 7, for our Christmas gathering. Unfortunately the service and experience last night, just wasn’t of their usual standard. And to be told ‘it’s been busy’ wasn’t really the point - I completely appreciate the festive period is a busy time in hospitality. We were initially sat upstairs but asked if we could be moved due to a Christmas party who were incredibly rowdy, quite literally getting their nipples out at the tables in the middle of a restaurant. The music was also blaring up there. We had to ask for menus after being seated and left. We were seated at 6.30 and by 8pm still hadn’t received our mains - baring in mind that 5 of us had ordered the same pasta!! When the food did arrive, the one different spicy pasta was steaming hot and the pizza also good, but the 5 same pasta weren’t hot, 2 were in the very middle of the dish but overall not great, not after 1.5 hours wait. We didn’t want to send the pasta back, given how long we had already waited to eat. I mentioned this to the manager when he checked on us and he went to the kitchen and advised they were served when they were ready. And tried to offer us a tray of limoncello? which we declined. We asked for the bill and again mentioned to the manager how we eat there often and on this occasion the service and experience wasn’t their usual, and that over 1.5 hours was quite long to wait for the food to arrive and 5/7 of them not to be hot if freshly cooked, to which he told us “the pasta’s weren’t cold”, but “maybe they had sat whilst the other items weren’t being prepared so they could serve at the same time” and gave a quick ‘sorry’. His customer service skills were dismissive and a bit rude if I’m honest, and we asked to speak to another manager for feedback (apparently there was a team of management, some upstairs and some down and one in an office), to which he dismissed as he was one of the managers. The price increase is a bit of a reach, £17-19 for a pasta dish. £35 for a bottle of white wine / £9.50 a glass!!! Honestly not reflective of the standard of service we received last night, nor expected. We removed the service charge from our bill, and would have expected a slight reduction in the overall bill, based on the 2 hours+ we were there. In all honesty, the place felt manic.

Written 15 December 2024

Jasmin K

1 contribution

Long wait

Oct 2024 • couples

Staff were all friendly and polite! No issue with the atmosphere either! we ordered drinks and mains only. It was a relatively quiet night, however we noticed the food was taking a while. I work in hospitality myself and was happy to be patient but in the 50 minutes we waited for food no one offered us more drinks and tables that came in after us were served their food. By this point I knew I should have said something sooner but didn’t want to be rude as I hate complaining. My partner was stared at by kitchen staff and a waitress came over and apologise with a bowl of olives, food then came 5 minutes later? We considered asking for discounted drinks or deserts but just wanted to leave as quick as possible and felt we hadn’t mentioned any issues. Shame because food was lovely too! I thought there was plenty of staff for a quiet night buy none seemed to come to the table or check the area.

Written 27 October 2024

Martin Scott

Newcastle upon Tyne17 contributions

A shadow of what it used to be

Oct 2024 • friends

I used to come here once a month around 5 or 6 years ago but we’ve eased off with the drastic increase in prices. The prices here are astronomical compared to elsewhere in Newcastle and it seems Prima now think they’re in central London for pricing. This was my first visit in years and it will be my last. Service was shocking. Really slow and the servers repeatedly walked away from the table without taking orders from everyone sat on it (there were 10 of us). The meals were okay but at almost £20 a pizza it was nothing special at all. The drinks orders were so, so slow and we almost got up and left before our final round of drinks arrived, 15 minutes after they were ordered. One of our orders was stone cold in the middle (a calzone) and we were told not to order another one as it ‘takes too long’ to cook. Two of the pizzas were burnt and the seafood ravioli was a tiny portion for its £19 price point. Not the excellent restaurant I remember it being and the food is almost twice the price of what it was back then. Would not recommend at all anymore.

Written 5 October 2024

Claire K

3 contributions

Terrible Service

Nov 2023 • friends

We visited the restaurant as a group of friends to celebrate a birthday. The waitress was so disengaged, rude and irritated the whole time which really impacted on our experience. We had a problem with one of the dishes and she was completely unhelpful and had no desire to apologise or rectify the situation. To make it worse - we were charged for a dish that we couldn't eat with no acknowledgement or explanation. the chef was also leaning over the pass and acting unprofessionally, pointing at tables with an aggressive attitude. We have been to Prima a lot- however, after this experience, we will not return and I will be sharing my experience so that others don't experience the same.

Written 17 November 2023

livvyfaye

Tyne and Wear419 contributions

£18 for a pasta dish very overpriced

Mar 2023 • couples

Lovely restaurant and atmosphere however very overpriced £18 for a pasta dish although it tasted very good and was very tasty it wasn’t worth £18 for my partners pasta dish was even more expensive and was £22. After ordering our food the starters arrived in around a minute after we ordered which were potato skins, at this point our drinks hadn’t even arrived then after about 5 mins once our starter plates had been taken away our mains arrived. The waitress who brought our main course over didn’t even say anything and just put the food down infront of us and it was the wrong meal for my partner so we had to catch there attention and tell them it wasn’t what we ordered. Food served far too fast also we weren’t asked if we wanted any Parmesan or black pepper on our pasta, and no one asked if our food was ok.

Written 11 March 2023

andy g

Swindon1 contribution

Not great

Apr 2023 • family

Arrived at 6 pm ordered a bottle of wine 3 starters and 4 pizzas. About 20 mins later waitress returns and says they don’t have any of that wine left and recommends an alternative for us. Another 20 ish mins same waitress returns and says the don’t have any of that wine either. We asked for anything at this point. Around 30 mins later the pizzas arrived before the wine which where okay nothing special after we finished and asked for the bill the starters arrived (we cancelled after receiving the main course.) expressed our frustrations at the waiter who smirked and shrugged his shoulders. All in all a really bad service ok food not great will not be returning or recommending

Written 7 April 2023

lesley G

1 contribution

Shocking!!

Apr 2023 • friends

Wow...words fail me as to how bad this place is. £22 for seafood spaghetti, that was mediocre, at best. Ordered a garlic bread starter which was cooked and brought to our table before we had even been served our drinks. Beer was flat, warm and tasteless, some Italian lager, I couldn't drink it anyway, and ordered a vodka and coke instead. Our waitress was a nice girl but she was clearly over-whelmed as she seemed to be the only one doing any work even though there were several staff wandering about who seemed to be too busy flirting with each other or playing on their phones. I could actually see our drinks order sitting on the bar, waiting for someone to take it whilst the bar-man was checking his phone, maybe this explains why the beer was flat and warm when it got delivered. Bit of a joke really. Staff don't get tips either, apparently, you get a 10% service charge added to your bill automatically, which goes straight into the owner's pocket...he should be ashamed of himself.

Written 18 April 2023

DHR

Washington51 contributions

Disappointing 😢

Nov 2022 • friends

Having been very impressed back in May I booked Prima again for a meal with friends. Table was ready on time at 8pm on Saturday evening, but it went downhill from there. We waited an hour for our starters, one of the sides never arrived despite us chasing it up and two of the three pizzas were so dry and tough they were difficult even to cut into slices. The staff seemed completely oblivious to the fact we weren’t enjoying the experience. With so much competition in the area Prima need to up their game on a Saturday night.

Written 19 November 2022

Kosdis L

1 contribution

Poor food

Jan 2023 • none

Normally nice Pizza and food but the standards have changed and not for the better. I understand that prices are up everywhere but at the same time Prima restaurant seems to use cheap ingredients. Pizza cheese was horrible like starch, green vegetables looked old and over-microwaved so broccoli became brownish, poor choice of veg, looked as if it was bought during the Christmas period. Squid looked ready bought frozen and just deep fried, no oil or balsamic offered with bresaola. Bread was also warmed up, suggesting it was not freshly made. On the upside house wine was good, the staff attentive without being intrusive and Pizza base was nice, just a shame for the cheese. All in all spend about £65, not impressed, could have done better cooking at home.

Written 4 January 2023

Phil7631

Shotley Bridge49 contributions

Disappointing

Feb 2023 • couples

Just been here for dinner. Now this is somewhere my wife and I have visited in the past but to be fair it had been a while. We were looking forward to a Sunday dinner as they used to be lovely. Turned up today to find that Sunday dinner was now £18.95! If I’m honest that’s a little steep for me for a Sunday dinner so we went for something else. It was happy hour so we opted for a pizza for me £12 (£18 out of happy hour..) and lasagna for the other half, again £12 (£18 out of happy hour) we thought we’d have some chunky chips as a side…..£5.50 A couple of drinks at almost £6 each were also had. The service was quick and the food hot but was it worth it? A definite no from me. Don’t get me wrong, it was fine… as in average. The £5.50 chips come in a little cup… Total bill was £42 including a £4 service charge. My thoughts? Not worth it. Other places are cheaper and tastier.

Written 5 February 2023

CMason

Newcastle upon Tyne24 contributions

What on earth has happened to Prima!?

Jan 2023 • couples

I’ve been a long standing customer of Prima for over 5 years and have never had a complaint and have left several 5 star reviews. For years I’ve called it my favourite restaurant in town but I feel very disappointed by the experience we had tonight. First of all, the prices have went up to £18 for a standard lasagne dish (all pastas were £18)! This was not justifiable, considering my partners pasta was undercooked and quality of the chicken was poor (usually this pasta is 10/10). My lasagne was very lovely, but again, not £18 worthy. Similarly, the restaurants second floor had flickering lights and we had to ask to move, because they were so bad we started to get a headache. Again, not the ambiance you’d expect if paying that amount of money. Not sure what’s happened, as Prima is usually a gem of the Quayside, but hope they revert back to their usual amazing standards soon.

Written 20 January 2023